1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to an optical deflector device for deflecting a light beam, and more particularly to a technique for deflecting a light beam due to an electro-optical effect of an electro-optical material, without using mechanical moving parts.
2. Discussion of the Prior Art
An optical deflector for deflecting a light beam within a predetermined angular range is used in various devices such as a laser-beam printer and a bar code reader. Known as typical examples of such a light deflector are a polygon mirror and a hologram scanner. These deflectors use mechanical moving parts such as a rotary mechanism and a device for driving the rotary mechanism. Thus, these optical deflector devices tend to be complicated in construction, relatively large-sized, and are not satisfactory in durability.